Last post I said I was working on a form for my boys to fill out what they have accomplished each week and so I’m sharing that today. You can see I have the Weekly Accountability sheet at the front of their assignment binders.
First, let me explain why I decided on this form. I had used a variation of a checklist from donnayoung.org’s site in the past. The only problem was that I wasn’t staying on top of it to see that everything was checked off every day. And there was no incentive for my boys to show it to me and make sure I checked it. With an accountability sheet I am putting the work (accountability) on them and making it their responsibility to complete and show to me. Come Monday morning if I don’t have a completed sheet (showing completed work) from the previous week then there will be consequences. I’m going to start by saying no electronics for the week. No electronics as in, no tv, no computer, no psp, no wii! Since the time-suckers will be gone they should be able to complete their work that week!

Explanation for my sheet:

1. The column that says “corrected” is for them to check off once the assignment has been corrected.

2. In math, I let me kids self-check their work. So I have a spot for them to write their initial score before correcting their work. They write it as a fraction. (25/28 means they got 25 problems correct out of a possible 28 problems)

3. I’ve tried using a time limit and an assigned amount of work each day. Time seems to work better for us so this sheet has space to record time. I do however want them to finish the assigned days work. But if I feel they were diligent with their time then I consider that good. Of course, not everyone structures their day this way!

4. Weekly jurisdiction is what some call chores. But in our house it is a room. Someone has the kitchen, someone has the living room and someone has the main bathroom. It is their job to keep their assigned room clean along with their bedroom.

5. Approved: this is for mom or dad to sign and date. I’m even thinking about an award or treat for every X number of completed forms done in a row or something along that line so that I can get them motivated a little! We’ll see how well that works!

that’s Character Quality Language Arts!

I’m not much for workbooks, but CQLA seems to work for us. Maybe because I’m not much into teaching Language Arts and so far this has been the best fit for us. When you buy CQLA you get a shrink-wrapped, 3 holed pile of papers–over 1000 pages! Last year we put these in a big 3 inch binder and then used a small 1/2 inch binder to keep a few weeks worth to work on. But this year I decided to split each unit (8) up and use my binding machine to make eight individual workbooks. I think this will work so much better!